No further business at Bristol City as summer transfer window slammed shut
BRISTOL City's summer spending stopped at £1.525 million yesterday.
The Championship club did not make a signing as the summer transfer window slammed shut.
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Bristol City
But in recruiting 11 players since the end of last season they had already splashed out more than three times the amount paid by any other club in the Wales and west region.
Some reports claim they will announce a deficit of around £9m – up from £6m last year – for the current financial year. Chairman Steve Lansdown and new manager Keith Millen will instead look to the loan market, which re-opens on September 7, to strengthen the defence and the left side of the team.
West-based accountancy firm Grant Thornton's sports advisory group has been monitoring the transfer market over the last two years.
It claims that City have layed out £1.525m gross and recouped £500,000 for a net spend of £1.025m. Swansea City are the next biggest buyers, having paid out £500,000 in 2010.
City's outlay bucks the general trend of austerity measures practised by the majority of clubs in the top three divisions of English football.
According to Grant Thornton, City spent £1.633m gross in the 2009 summer window when their net spend was £1.208million.
Championship rivals Cardiff City have brought in Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy on loan but have not paid out any cash in fees.
That compares favourably with the £5.625m they shelled out last August before losing the play-off final to Blackpool in May.
Millen said: "Today was only the deadline for permanent deals.
"In eight days' time we are able to use the emergency loan market, so there's no need to rush.
"There are still a few things ongoing and a couple of deals are possible when we can loan again.
"Another factor is the Premier League clubs name their squads on Wednesday. We may know more about who is available to loan in from the publication of the top-flight squads."
City's squad now contains 33 players, including injured on-loan Wolves striker Sam Vokes. They will look to offload one or two on loan later this month.
The Robins do not play again until a week on Saturday – at Scunthorpe United – because of the international break.
They had planned to play a reserve game this week but, as striker Danny Haynes (groin) is still not fit, have opted against doing so.
5 Comments
by Roger, Clifton
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 8:39PM
“Chris - we'll see how good the team are after the Scunthorpe result. 0-0 would be a good result for us. A thrashing would choke off possible recovery as we would well & truly mired in relegation dog-fight territory and what quality player would like to join a 'basket case'? So that Scunthorpe result is megga important.
COYR”
by Mary, Clifton
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 8:35PM
“Chris - you're right. Give him a chance.
Hopefully he will deliver the 2 players we need LHS defence and midfield iron-man / creative player.
Every team needs to knit together and the constant changes cannot help.”
by Chris, Bristol
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 12:41PM
“Lets just give the man some time to sort out his plan. We are still, basically, in pre season. Due to the fact we had a number of injuries and that Steve Coppell didn't work on the players fitness at all (it seems).
There is alot of panic talk at the mo and there is no need. Yes, things haven't worked out exactly as anyone would have hoped but constantly criticising and moaning will not help, in fact its likely to make things worse and it contributed to this current predicament in the first place.
Millen is a City man and has waited patiently to get this job, as such, im sure he will work damn hard to make it right.
Lets give the man the support he needs and get off his back. We have a good squad, that's a fact but it also needs some improvement and KM is, as we are, well aware of what areas are in need of improvement.
Coppell let us down, im sure Millen wont!
Lets ensure we pull together in adversity
COYR”
by Fred, Weston
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 12:18PM
“Find it difficult to believe a word KM utters.
Now it's OK to wait 8 days when before he was rushing to beat the transfer deadline. Let's hope that the next 8 days yields something useful.”
by Rooster Booster, Clevedon
Wednesday, September 01 2010, 8:09AM
“Prepare for the excuses.
When City do get any loan player(s) we will then be told it takes time to bed them in. So.....
The problem should have been resolved in pre-season not weeks into the season!”